justify

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To provide an acceptable explanation for.

   • How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
   • Paying too much for car insurance is not justified.
   • What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert th’ Eternal Providence, And justifie the wayes of God to men.
2. 2

   To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action

   To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action; to warrant.

   • Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
   • Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government, under an abstract constitutional right to do so.
   • Preservation of two railway routes between Belfast and Derry could no longer be justified and one of them must go.
3. 3

   To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all…

   To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.

   • The text will look better justified.
4. ›+ 5 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.

      • I cannot justify whom the law condemns.
      • And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
   2. 5

      To give reasons for one’s actions

      To give reasons for one’s actions; to make an argument to prove that one is in the right.

      • She felt no need to justify herself for deciding not to invite him.
      • And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
      • […] I was equally unable to justify myself and unwilling to acknowledge my errors […]
   3. 6

      To prove

      To prove; to ratify; to confirm.

      • She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been, By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all; When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge She is thy very princess.
      • […] say My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench that puts to Before her troth-plight: say’t and justify’t.
   4. 7

      To show (a person) to have had a sufficient legal reason for an act that has been made…

      To show (a person) to have had a sufficient legal reason for an act that has been made the subject of a charge or accusation.

   5. 8

      To qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property.

      • J'USTIFYING BAIL, practice, is the production of bail in court, who there justify' themselves against the exception of the plaintiff.

The neighborhood

• synonymvindicate
• neighbor-fy
• neighborjust
• neighborjustifiable
• neighborjustifiably
• neighborjustification
• neighborunjustified